The present invention relates generally to communications services, and more particularly, to methods, systems, and computer program products for implementing bandwidth management services.
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology is a copper loop transmission technology that provides increased bandwidth in the last mile between communication service providers and the users of these services. DSL technology provides broadband speed over a conventional phone wire, which in turn, allows service providers to provide multimedia applications, e.g., video, VoIP, Internet, etc., to their customers over their existing outside plant infrastructure.
Various services (e.g., television services), however, typically consume large amounts of bandwidth on a DSL connection. When multiple services (e.g., television, video/music downloading, gaming, etc.) are simultaneously utilized over a single connection (e.g., household), the overall quality of these services can be negatively impacted due to strain on the available bandwidth (e.g., transmission delays or dropped packets), resulting in loss of quality, such as reduced VoIP voice quality or pixelization of video images. Customers may have some rudimentary knowledge of these issues and attempt to troubleshoot by activating and deactivating various services. However, they cannot be sure of the precise cause, timing, and effects of exercising these options unless they are given specific information about the actual cause and effects of the underlying issues.
What is needed, therefore, is a way to identify bandwidth issues that affect the quality of a service or services and to provide sufficient and timely information to those affected by the issues, in a way that is easily understood, thereby providing an opportunity to respond and potentially optimize these services in accordance with their current needs or desires.